A very civil defense

December 07, 2010

Posted by Alex Meehan on sbpost.ie:

"Given that homosexuality was decriminalised here
only in 1993, it might sound surprising to hear a leading US human
rights lawyer state that Ireland is showing international leadership in
the public acceptance of gay rights.

"However, according to Evan
Wolfson, the fact that civil partnership is set to be enacted into law
here next year means that is exactly what is happening.

‘‘'In
Ireland, around 70 per cent of people are in favour of full and equal
access to marriage, so it’s now up to the politicians to catch up with
public opinion and make that law,' Wolfson says. ‘'In the US, we also
have politicians who need to catch up, but the difference is that it’s
only been this year that we finally saw research showing a majority of
American people supporting the freedom to marry.'

"'That was an important milestone, and it shows we’re on the right path.'

"Wolfson
is founder and executive director of Freedom to Marry, a non-profit
organisation in the US that advocates the legalisation of marriage for same-sex couples.

"Widely recognised as one of the most prominent public
faces of marriage equality in the US, he has been named as one of the
world’s 100 most influential people by Time magazine.

"But while
Wolfson, who was in Dublin as a guest of the lobby Group Marriage
Equality, lauds the progress that has been made in Ireland so far, he
believes there is much more to be done.

‘‘'In some respects,
Ireland is ahead of the US - you now have a law that acknowledges gay
families and couples, and begins to provide some very important
protections and responsibilities,' he says.

‘‘'It’s far short of
what those families need and deserve - which is the same protection and
inclusion of marriage that other families have - but nevertheless it is
a national acknowledgment of these families and the beginning of the
provision of better protections and responsibilities.'

"'We have nothing like that at all at a federal level in the US.'

"Wolfson’s career has closely followed the breaking wave of public attitudes to homosexuality and civil rights in the US.

... "It wasn’t just in the area of gay rights that Wolfson
found himself involved in high-profile legal cases. During his time as
a prosecutor in Brooklyn, he also worked on challenging the marital
rape exemption, a piece of law at one time common in all parts of the
world which had inherited the British legal system.

‘‘'A man
could not be prosecuted for raping his wife because he was entitled to
take what the law termed as ‘what belongs to him’,' he says.

‘‘'This
was part of the so-called traditional definition of marriage. I wound
up as a prosecutor getting to challenge that law, writing a brief that
ultimately went to the high court of New York and struck down that
exemption.'

‘‘'This wasn’t 100 or even 50 years ago: this was in 1984.'

"'That just shows you how long these so-called traditional definitions that we think of as being unacceptable prevailed in law.'

"The
idea that women became the legal property of men when they married
passed from religious tradition into secular law, and even as recently
as the 1980s was being defended by religious voices who asserted that
women should subordinate themselves to men.

‘‘'The vast majority
of people now feel it is a good thing that this law got changed; the
world didn’t end, and society is better off as a result. It just shows
you that sometimes, even attitudes thought to be set in stone can
change.'

"It is in this context that Wolfson wants people to
reconsider their views on the freedom to marry. For a start, he wants them
to realise that as far as he’s concerned, there is no religious element
to the issue.

‘‘'Firstly, we’re not fighting for gay marriage in
Ireland or in the US - what we’re actually fighting for is an end to
exclusion from marriage itself,' he says. 'There is a difference.'

‘‘Marriage
in the US and here is a legal institution that is regulated by the
government, that is created by the issuance of civil licences.

"The
government doesn’t issue communion licences or bar mitzvah licenses or
whatever, but it does issue marriage licences, because marriage is a
legal institution that brings with it a vast array of tangible and
intangible consequences.

‘‘'What we’re looking for is an end to
the denial of marriage, whether in Ireland or elsewhere, to people who
have made a commitment to each other and who want that commitment
recognised in law.' Wolfson says he isn’t trying to tell ‘any church,
temple, synagogue or mosque’ who they should or shouldn’t marry.

‘‘'But
what we are saying is that no church, temple, synagogue or mosque
should be dictating to the civil government who can get a marriage
licence and enjoy the legal status that goes with that,' he says. 'It’s not about telling any church what to do, it’s about telling the
government that it should not be discriminating against some of its
citizens.'

‘‘'When people bring up religion as a reason to oppose
equal justice under the law, I ask them to really dig deep into their
religious values and ask themselves what those values teach.'

"'They teach respect for love and respect for commitment.'

‘‘'Ending
the denial of marriage imposes nothing on anyone else, but it allows
people who have made a commitment to each other to live lives that
strengthens society and the world around them.'”

Freedom to Marry was the campaign to win marriage nationwide. With the Supreme Court victory on June 26, 2015, the work of this strategic campaign – though not the larger movement – was achieved, and Freedom to Marry wound down its operations, closing in early 2016. For inquiries, please email legacy@freedomtomarry.org.